Anatomy Reference: The Knee

The Full Knee Reference and Tips

Knees are one of those anatomy features that gets ignored, over-simplified, or misinterpreted so that’s why I wanted to do a knee exercise to practice working on accurate knees that you can be proud to show off! Below is a chart I’ve been creating the past week to help understand and remember how to draw knees in your own work. Keep in mind while drawing knees, the underlying forms the most important aspect to showcase accurately.

Remember those 3 bones: Femer, Patala, and Tibia. These three bones along with some tendons and ligaments form that “knee cap” that usually represents the overall knee shape. In the chart you can see as you “melt” the bones, there is a shape that resembles an oval or egg shape being wrapped in the middle with a rubber band. From here you should have an anatomy reference open on the side to accurately depict the muscles the come above and below the knee.

From there remember that the inside of the knees/legs have more indents while the outside tends to be smoother. Lastly, the main difference between male and female legs is that male knees/legs typically focus on the underlying muscles and appear more rigid while the female knees/legs generally appear smoother with softer edges. Hope this helps you while creating knees on your own!